It’s been reported that former Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland has passed away. According to the Spanish newspaper El Progreso, the 69-year-old musician died on Tuesday, January 16th at Hospital Universitario Lucus Augusti in Lugo, Spain. His cause of death has not been revealed and his body has already been cremated.
Based on numerous reports, Holland was residing in Fonsagrada, a concealed area in Northwest Spain after serving years in a British jail after being found guilty for attempted rape of a minor. Holland, who believed he was innocent, was sentenced back in 2004 of trying to rape a 17-year-old boy, whom he also sexually assaulted on numerous occasions. The assaults took place while he was giving the special needs teen drum lessons in his cottage in Northamptonshire, England. The abuse was revealed after the boy wrote a letter to his parents.
El Progreso mentioned that his neighbors thought he was a kind and nice person. Holland was with Judas Priest for an entire decade – 1979 up until 1989, and worked on their classic albums from 1980’s British Steel to 1988’s Ram It Down.
